Saturday, January 30, 2010

Sarah Palin is a fighter, a barracuda or a pitbull, with lipstick of course. She is on the prowl for Obama. More than anyone else, she is responsible for the decline in the prospects, for not only Obamacare but for Obama’s presidency as well.

Palin endeared herself to conservatives because she took on Obama in her acceptance speech. Unfortunately McCain didn’t have the stomach for it and muzzled her instead. Now she is calling the shots.

By repeating her mantra in every speech or comment she makes, she is branding herself. She presents her policies as axiomatic, requiring no proof and the public is accepting them as such. She is negatively characterizing Obama and his policies.

She participated in the pre and post analysis of Obama’s SOTU address on Fox News and the next day was interviewed by Greten van Susteren. In answer to the first question she said

Well, you know, listening to his speech last night, I was kind of getting some whiplash there. I’d listen to what he was saying, then I’d whip my head down there and read the text to try to figure out what is he actually saying here? How does what he is saying match up to the actions that he’s taken thus far? Because the acts that he’s taken thus far will not get the jobs created, as he says he desires.

That speech was so full of contradictions last night. And I know that, you know, afterwards, as we analyze it, we’re supposed to be, you know, quite diplomatic and analytic and quite gracious in our commentary. But come on! You know, again, so full of contradictions that the American public, I think, listened to the thing and said, How are jobs going to be created when you talk about cap and tax, which is taxing energy, which will prohibit more developments across our nation, when you talk about the second jobs bill, which is a stimulus bill, more spending, which is going to require tax increases to pay for these things. How in the world is that going to help the middle class? How will that help job creation?

In the first paragraph she is contrasting his words with his deeds. The public is already beginning to ignore what he says and Palin will speed that process along.

She starts her attack by saying “But come on.” and then lets loose. Name me one other politicians who is so direct. Palin is also good at ridiculing Obama. In all her speeches she deflates him with her ridicule. I love it.

What am I missing, folks? We’re called obstructionists and made to feel uninformed in the Obamacare debate as we point out this is not a patient-driven, market-oriented approach to health care cost challenges. We’ve been saying for months that this is government takeover of our personal choices of insurers and doctors. We’re called liars when claiming that this is all about government mandates and control of up to a sixth of our economy.

And yet, shockingly, the president admitted yesterday exactly what we’ve been saying: that his Democrats and lobbyists have crafted bills that in factwill prevent us from keeping our current insurance and/or choosing our own doctor. He said:

The last thing I will say, though -- let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we’ve presented -- and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.[emphasis added]

Thanks to Tom Bevan at RCP for spotting this. The president’s statement is shocking, enlightening, and in an odd and unfortunate way also encouraging. Folks, this admission tells us we’re not off-base and we need to stay vigilant so we’re not missing anything else in this scheme. This trillion-dollar government takeover of our health care system is full of “stray dogs and cats” (the president’s words, not mine), and that’s what we’ve been saying all along.

Commonsense conservatives have better ideas on how to start tackling rising health care costs. Reps. Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and others have offered solutions. I commend their efforts to counter the White House’s attempt to ram Obamacare through as these Congressmen seek bipartisan, sensible solutions. I implore them to speak louder because we’re listening, and we’re counting on them!